Burnley got what they deserved - Laws

Trailing to Luke Moore’s deflected 19th-minute strike - one of only two Derby efforts at goal all game - former Rams defender Tyrone Mears equalised with a sublime free kick, his first goal for the club, before Jack Cork headed in a last-minute winner.

It was a victory for patience, having been frustrated in the 1-0 defeat at Coventry last week, and Laws said: “Patient is certainly the apt word because we had to be, no doubt about it.

“People might talk about formations or the way we’ve been playing, three up front, one up front, but you’ve also got to assess what the opposition are going to do, because they also come in with a game plan, and what they wanted us to do was allow us a lot of the ball at the back.

“They sat so deep in the first half, and we couldn’t get going really.

“That’s when we changed and made an effect, we did it five, 10 minutes before half-time, saw the players were assessing that already, and at half-time we said the important thing was we’d had so much possession, it was ridiculous.

“Yet they scored with their first shot, which took a hell of a deflection.

“The word patience had to be used, and we couldn’t get drawn into knocking it long.

“Sometimes if the supporters are impatient, it drives you that way, but I’ve got to thank the fans, they were very good.

“They could have got on our backs, but the fact they’ve seen what we’re trying to do, the way we’ve tried to approach it, and I’m sure they’re more pleased with the performance.”

At the Ricoh Arena, Laws was unhappy with the way his players tried to get back into the game after conceding, with the ball being played into the box from too deep.

However, his side kept their composure against Derby, and kept trying to pass their way to opportunities: “We were certainly worthy winners, I don’t think anyone can take that away from us.

“But we have quality in the side, and when we’re patient, as I said last week, when we were sucked into chasing the game when we had half an hour to go, you would have thought it was the last five minutes.

“I can understand in the last five minutes you throwing the kitchen sink at it, but we did that too early at Coventry, but we’ve seen when we are patient, we can have success with it.

“A lot of good sides are like that, and we’ve shown what a good side we can be, even against a resolute side who put a lot of bodies behind the ball.

“I think there was one part of the game where they had 10 in their box, so it was never going to be easy, but we had to make sure when we got round the sides of them that the quality was there.

“It was a great cross from Wade, who slotted into his natural position, and the goal was fantastic, great reward for a fantastic performance from Corky.

“And congratulations as well to Tyrone, many people think he’s a full-back that bombs on, and there’s not much more to his game, but he practises and practises free-kicks.”

, I’ve never known anybody like it, and the rewards are few and far between.

“But he came up trumps, and I was delighted for him because that’s his first goal for Burnley.”